07.11j: The Pre-meeting

[misfit]

Harrune arrives at the Castle and quickly makes his way to the main meeting room. He arrives to find Oberon and Will waiting for him. I'm assuming that there are some sort of refreshments available, so Harrune will grab something to drink.

"Greetings gentlemen. I assume things are still quiet. Are we expecting anyone else for this meeting? I have to go over this twice as it is, I would prefer to avoid making it three times."

[Spellbinder]

Spellbinder and Quin enter the room as if on cue.* "Hello everyone. I hear that you're looking for me Oberon. Quin says you wanted to see me about an issue we've been discussing. Given who's here, I can't be sure which one that was."

When he turns to Harrune he becomes noticeably more stiff and formal. "Hello Harrune."

He then turns you Will and relaxes again. "And you would be...Will I believe? A pleasure to meet you. I'm known as Spellbinder." He offers his hand to will.

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*What's the point in having a knack for arriving in the nick of time if you never use it?

[Joshua]

Will, in his wizard robes, offers his hand. "Yes. Heard we had a new spellcaster. Could use one to help out at the castle. Or not, as would be your choice." He smiles. "I keep the guards skilled, but, there's only so much talent to go around."

Oberon will nod at teh two of them. "Well, yes." he will mention. "So, Harrune has found out something about the enemy we were discussing last night."

[misfit]

Harrune will return Spellbinder's greeting with an equally formal nod. "Spellbinder."

"Thank you all for coming so promptly. Last night I went back to my home shadow. On the way back I decided to do a little scouting to see what I could learn. Of course the most direct, but hardly the most comfortable way, to find something is to hellride..." Harrune goes on to recap his journey.

"Contact was more direct than I had hoped, but it did give me some valuable insights. As I understand it, people thought it was some kind of entity possessing the local inhabitants. This is not correct. I think the city itself is somehow alive and conscious. Each of the people is a part of it. They are all connected. I think each has some will of their own, but the greater consciousness guides and directs them. The consciousness can focus where it is needed and use the individuals directly. The power of it is staggering. Had it brought its full power to bear I would have been snuffed like a candle."

"Also, the nearby shadows were all very similar. I suspect that is spreading into those shadows and remaking them in its own image. We would need to investigate more to be certain. I may be mistaken on this point, but I think it believes that Amber is conscious as well. Lane's purpose may be for it to study Amber and determine if it is a threat. I don't seem to have been seen as enough of a threat for it it act immediately."

[Spellbinder]

Spellbinder starts to pace while he thinks. "So, the people are like cells in a body. Each is alive and does it own thing, but individually they aren't important. When they come together they form something greater. Or maybe more like neurons. One of their own isn't much, but put a lot of them together and working together and they can really make things happen. And generally the more working together the smarter they are."

"If it is spreading that could be a real problem. If it can be reasoned with and contained everything is fine. If not, we'll probably end up in direct conflict with it."

[misfit]

Harrune sighs. "Agreed. It its home shadow no one of us could fight it directly. If it were to come here I think it would be considerably weaker since it would be away from its center of power. That is most likely why it hasn't come after me yet. I think it is safe to assume that it can come here, at least in some sense. Otherwise it would not be in contact with Lane. That may be avenue to try to make peaceful contact."

"I'm reluctant to go into any in depth planning at the moment. This affects all of us and I think the others should have a voice in any plan that will likely impact them. Until we can convene at least the majority of us I think we should just observe and be ready to defend ourselves."

[Joshua]

Oberon will ponder for a while... then sigh. "Very well, I'll set a meeting for three today. That should give everyone time to return. I suspect the trip to find Rogbar at least would be disrupted by trump calls. I doubt a few hours will make a difference." He will shake his head. "Kind of a shame to let this sit, but that can't be helped. So... bigger question. What should we do with Lane? Do you think this entity... that part of this entity? can contact Lane?"

[misfit]

Harrune cocks his head and turns to look at Oberon. "Have you forgotten so soon? As I recall it was just last night from your perspective...assuming that you stayed here of course. This all got started because of reports of Lane having a living god in the city. I've seen no evidence of that, but I clearly remember telling you that he had the means to communicate with another shadow. I used a hellride to find the source. I've never known a hellride to be wrong before. I am guessing, and it is only a guess, that he needs to be in the church to establish contact."

Harrune scratches his ear. "Hmmm...but what to do about Lane?"

[Spellbinder]

"Nothing!" Spellbinder looks a bit chagrined for speaking so quick and forcefully. "Sorry. This thing just had an unexpected intruder and if probably on edge. If it abruptly loses contact with its agent here it's going to go into full 'fight or flight' mode. It's either go to pull back and start entrenching or it's going to come out swinging. We don't know which and we're not ready for the second one at the moment."

Spellbinder pauses for a moment. "Okay, maybe not 'nothing'. If he needs to be in the church to communicate maybe we need to find a discrete way to encourage him to leave the church. If he leaves voluntarily that isn't as likely to set off any alarms...or at least not as soon anyway."

"So do we try, or do we wait for the others?"

[Joshua]

Quin will sigh. "Fine, I'll find out where he is... Discretely. And you know I hate being discrete. You guys can see who shows up, and I'll meet you back here in a bit. Let's say 1? Hopefully the connection stays inactive for now. That's why you couldn't trace it before, right? So, unless his phone rings we don't have to worry about communication for a little bit at least." The jester will ponder, then add. "If he's in the church, I'll have him meet you in fae-town. I'm sure Lady Ninear can make up something about a speech or questions, if you need."

Will asks Harrune, "Do you have any idea what kind of abilities it uses? I can work on some countermeasures for the guards? A psychic impression would be perfect, since it sounds like you got that."